A rift with Assad's allies? Think again'The fact is that all three parties need each other too much to risk disagreement over Hamas. Assad owes his very survival to the direct intervention of Hezbollah and Iran. The latter two, increasingly unpopular throughout the region for propping him up, will not want to risk losing one of the only Middle Eastern allies they have left. The strategic choices they have made makes Assad a more important ally to them than Hamas could be.
As such, talk of a rift seems based more on wild optimism than rational analysis. If the killing of more than 170,000 Syrians has done nothing to dent their alliance, the killing of more than 1,000 Palestinians will not either.'
I saw that someone in the UK who styles themselves an anti-fascist activist had posted a statement very similar to that attributed to Hassan Nasrallah here, "for all differences and sensitivities on other issues to be put to one side", and wondered if there was a direct connection.